MAIN Society Sex Same Sex Marriage

A watershed moment in American social history was marked in 2011 with the passage of a same sex marriage law in New York, the largest state to do so.

Effectively doubling the number of people in the US who can now legally marry someone of the same sex, the passage of the New York same sex marriage law follows Massachusetts, Iowa, the District of Columbia, Vermont, and New Hampshire in passing similar legislation that has caused contention among voters from coast to coast.

So how and when did gay marriage become the new hot button issue?

1989 marked the first time ever that a national government granted rights similar to heterosexual couples, when Denmark extended property and inheritance rights for gays and lesbians under what was known as "registered partnerships."

Norway, Sweden, Iceland and several other EU nations followed shortly after, with their own official recognition of same-sex marriages, or similar arrangements (such as domestic partnerships, civil partnerships or civil unions.)

By 2001, The Netherlands was the first country to legalize gay marriage by giving same-sex couples the right to marry, divorce and adopt children. This led the way to at least a dozen more countries granting same-sex couples full rights to marry under the law, most notably in Canada, Spain, Belgium, Norway and South Africa.

Currently within their borders, Israel and France have lent a sympathetic ear with legal recognition of same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions, but do not perform their own.

Today, along with a popular groundswell of support, fierce opposition to gay marriage continues as social conservatives express concern over parenting issues, traditional religious teachings, and the preservation of the idea that marriage should be exclusively reserved as a union between a man and a woman.

Officially, the U.S. government does not recognize same-sex marriage, holding squarely to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was enacted in 1996 under the Clinton administration which banned federal recognition of gay couple unions.

Today, most Americans continue to oppose gay marriage. Meanwhile, this same majority say they would support civil unions or domestic partnerships — giving hope to the gay community that changing attitudes may grow into to an eventual lifting of a federal ban on same sex marriage in the not too distant future.

More about same sex marriage on the Web:

Should Same Sex Marriage Be Legalized? - The arguments in a nutshell illustrated in opposing tables on the pros and cons, and further discussion on the reasons why or why not same sex marriage should be legalized, with related resources from BalancedPolitics.com.

Where is Gay Marriage Legal? - About.com guide on the legal aspects of same sex marriage including information on countries where same sex marriage is permitted, current US laws by state, and related feature stories on gay wedding planning and the gay lifestyle.

Gay Marriage - Pew Forum reports on public opinion trends on gay marriage and civil unions, including a breakdown of 17 major religious groups' views on gay marriage, and the US constitutional dimensions of the same-sex marriage debate.

FindLaw Legal News - Same Sex Marriage - Historical legal background and latest news on same sex marriage, information on the legal rights of gay or lesbian parents, with an extensive library of legal opinion pieces and commentary.

Same Sex Marriage, Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships - Overview with historical details and quotes, maps showing current state laws affecting gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, with related references and resources from ReligiousTolerance.org.

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